8 comments
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It's just... weird. I mean, ducking an arms embargo under the pretext of oil spill clean-up...

If we just zone out and sidestep the whole arms embargo issue, then it must be realized that this is not about selling a few planes of course, this is selling the C-130 - as in THE C-130. If China can copy and produce a Su-27 it sure as hell can copy a C-130.

beyond weird. on one hand we have our politicians talk about China illegally tying their money to ours so that their products are artificially cheap..on the same hand we have the Pentagon saying that China is a present and future threat and then we have the President of the United States authorizing the sale of a robust, valuable and underappreciated piece of military gear to that nation under the idea that it can help with oil spill clean up!

yes he has. oh and kateykakes. i haven't forgotten its just that i have a friend that's pretty well placed that is trying to find an answer to that pretty darn hard question you sent me. information is suppose to be coming (cause i called him last thursday to see if he found out anything)...so expect an e-mail back from me around tues or weds.

Ridiculous but not entirely unexpected to be honest. You see unlike most Western countries, the Chinese actually have a long term strategic vision which dictates EVERY single action they take on the international stage.

For the past 20 years they have been steadily making sure that they hold as many trump cards as possible in negotiations with the West. Notice the monopolization of Rare Earth supplies, the near total domination of lithium and nickel processing, the huge strategic investments in western treasury bonds, the sponsorship of African and Central Asian 'development' projects, while in the background they quietly undertook the largest military build up since the WWII.

Obama is stupid but I bet he has been given some kind of ultimatum, "Give us C-130's or else we cut off your Rare Earth supplies". Not saying you should bow down to that pressure but then what chance does he have at this point? The country has sold itself head to toe to the Chinese at this point and now we will start to see first hand what kind of benevolent overlords they are.

Notice the treatment of Japan in the ridiculous island row recently for an indication of how China is going to behave in the future. The island row's are going to be an issue very soon, not just with Japan but also with the ASEAN countries over the Spratly Islands. You see the Spratly's are disputed but the Chinese have nonchalantly gone and built a naval base on them and now claim the WHOLE South China Sea as territory. Only now have countries like the US, Indonesia and the Philippines noticed the problem. The Chinese obviously are belligerent and honestly who's going to stop them?

Did you know that the Chinese military fired live MLRS batteries at the recent South Korean-American Naval Exercises? Is that a tolerable act? No, but the did jack shit about it...